Recently in Music Category

Jimmy McMillan didn't get his album out in time to boost his candidacy for governor of New York, but there's plenty of opportunity to build on "The Rent is Too Damn High" before November 2012.

That's right, Jimmy McMillan has an album. And never mind governor: The Brooklyn resident, perennial would-be public servant and founder of the Rent is Too Damn High Party, now has a higher office in mind.

"Barack Obama is in trouble," McMillan, 64, says from, well, somewhere in New York City, as part of a crackly cellphone soliloquy that lasts until his battery goes dead or he loses reception.

And the vinyl revival goes too far: Now you can have your ashes pressed into a vinyl record when you die.

A British company called And Vinyly offers the opportunity to "live on from beyond the groove" by having your remains, portions of your remains or even your pet's remains interred into an 33 1/3-rpm record. "Record a personal message, your last will & testament, your own soundtrack or simply press your ashes to hear your pops & crackles, for a minimalist approach," goes the sales pitch.

It's not cheap: the basic package, which comes with up to 30 discs of 12 minutes per side, will run you £3,000, or about $4,800. For additional charges, you can add backing tracks, "bespook" music written specifically for you, original artwork or even a full funeral service.

If you like the idea but find it's outside your price range, well, you can simply go with a t-shirt, too.

After announcing a tour a few weeks ago, Bon Jovi this morning got around to setting prices for the road trip, which stops March 4 at Mohegan Sun. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. for $210 and $135.

The announcement is evidently timed to coincide (sort of) with the release tomorrow of "Bon Jovi's Greatest Hits," a collection sure to "transport listeners back in time through the band's worldwide monster hits," according to a press release from Mohegan Sun.

The compilation (available in a single- or double-CD package also includes four new songs written specifically for the best-of album.

She spells her name with a dollar sign, spells her song titles in text-speak, coats herself in glitter and headlines Saturday at Mohegan Sun. That's right, it's Ke$ha, and if you're willing to sign up for her e-mail newsletter, she'll give you a free download of her new song, "We R Who We R," until noon Wednesday.

The song, which sounds pretty much exactly how you'd expect -- catchy, vapid, full of self-referential party imagery -- comes from "Cannibal," a nine-track release that her label bills as the "companion" to Ke$ha's platinum-selling debut, "Animal." That's the album that spawned her big hit "Tik Tok," and both song and album hit No. 1 on various Billboard charts.

Along with eight new songs, "Cannibal" apparently includes a "kicka$$ new remix of 'Animal,'" according to the first installment of her e-mail newsletter (which, naturally, arrived before the e-mail with the download.) So there you have it.

UPDATE: Don't hold your breath for the download code: took four hours for mine to arrive, though some of that may well be due to the glacial pace of company e-mail servers.

Pete Wentz didn't intend to start a new band during Fall Out Boy's hiatus, but inspiration struck hard enough for him to found Black Cards.

"I was just living in New York while my wife was doing Broadway and I was hanging out with my friend Sam [Hollander] in his studio, and I was into Tom Tom Club and reggae/ska at the time," Wentz says by phone from New York, before starting a tour Black Cards tonight in Hartford.

Those are some of the sound influencing his new project, a duo with singer Bebe Rexha, a band perhaps best described as eclectic electro-pop.

Bob Boilen, co-host of NPR's All Songs Considered, recently wrote a blog item on "Tunes That Got You Through Your Teens," prompted by a fan request to recommend meaningful music for his 13-year-old daughter. Fair enough -- the teen years are often a turbulent time when music can offer great solace.

But let's not stop there. What tunes got you through college? Or your 20s? Or later? How much do you listen now to the songs that meant to much so you then? Do they have the same meaning, or has it changed you've changed? For that matter, have you changed?

For me, college ended up being the transition from my die-hard adherence to classic rock (Pink Floyd and the Who in particular) and old-school blues to more modern sounds, a transition that accelerated substantially when I became the Courant's rock critic in 2002.

My 20s, especially the latter half, were often tumultuous, and I gravitated toward what a friend calls "sad bastard music": Jesse Malin, Ryan Adams and alt-country in general (especially Uncle Tupelo and its off-shoots).

So what about you? What music helped you make sense of college and beyond?

Last year we learned about "Reggae in Fusion Album #1," a collection of songs, mostly by Hartford-area artists, blending reggae with other genres.Seems some of the songs are doing well on the radio and on the charts in Jamaica, according to Roger Meltzer, CEO and Director of A&R for Capsicum Records, which released the album. (Meltzer also co-wrote 10 of the songs on the disc.)

Meltzer says Misteree's song is also No. 1 at Energy Radio 101.5-FM in Hartford, where chart position is determined by a combination of listener requests and text message votes.

"The response of Jamaican radio stations and their listeners to our music is amazing," Meltzer says by e-mail. "We took a big chance taking our reggae-in-fusion crossover sound into the birthplace of reggae, but we believed in ourselves and our songs, and the people of Jamaica, with their eclectic musical tastes, have vindicated that decision."

Gawker reports that staffers learned of the closing yesterday in an internal announcement, and were given two hours to clean out their desks. It makes Paste the latest music mag to fold in the face of twin collapses in the music and publishing industries.

Blender, Vibe, Harp, No Depression and Performing Songwriter have also ceased print publication over the past few years.

Word surfaced last year that Paste was in financial trouble, and an appeal for donations from musicians and readers apparently helped the magazine stay open, though the momentum was evidently unsustainable.

Earlier this year, musicians donated tracks to help Paste raise funds to assist relief efforts in Haiti, and the magazine had for several years been a consistent tastemaking presence at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

Like the other titles that have closed in recent years, losing Paste is a blow to thoughtful coverage of music (and film and culture) outside the realms of Top-40 and the movie megaplexes. That kind of coverage seems important now more than ever, even as the number of voices covering such topics in print -- from magazines to newspapers, including this one -- continues to shrink.

How timely: With Kings of Leon set to perform tonight in Hartford, NME.com reports the band is planning an October release of its still-untitled fifth album.

The UK music weekly cites DirectCurrentMusic.com, which says the band's label, RCA, has scheduled the album for release Oct. 19.

Kings of Leon has been playing a handful of tunes from the next record, including "Southbound," above, from a July 20 performance in Denver. The new album follows 2008's platinum-selling "Only By the Night."

Sure, "California Gurls" by Katy Perry is a pretty high-profile song, but has it "indisputably become the summer anthem of 2010," in the words of Capitol, Perry's record company?

The label's numbers would seem to back that boast.

The label claims summer-anthem status based on the song's popularity on Top 40 radio, where it received 13,167 spins in just one week. That's an average of 13 spins per day per station (I think -- the label's explanation was a little unclear on that point, and a publicist didn't respond to a request for clarification).

Capitol says the song "reached an audience of 140 million" last week,
and expects to reach 150 million this week -- numbers that are impressive, if they're true.

It's good hype for Perry's second album, "Teenage Dream," which is due Aug. 24, and featuring Snoop Dogg on the single can't hurt in terms of drawing in urban listeners who wouldn't otherwise bother with Top 40.

On the other hand, are Top-40 radio spins still a measure of a song's popularity? Probably not as much as Capitol hopes, given how many other, more interactive ways there are to hear new music. And Capitol and parent company EMI aren't so good at harnessing those -- this is the same company, after all, that continues to disallow embedding YouTube videos.

We'll see what happens in August.

Click right here to see more contenders for the summer anthem of 2010.

This is great: "Listening to music can have a tremendously relaxing effect on our minds and bodies," posits this article on PsychCentral.

Classical music is of specific relaxational value, writes author Jane Collingwood, though she allows, "Musical preference varies widely between individuals, so only you can decide what you like and what is suitable for each mood. But even if you don't usually listen to classical music it may be worth giving it a try when selecting the most calming music."

OK, so there's the egghead perspective. Now let's try for the real-world application: what do YOU listen to when you want to relax?

After showing remarkable resilience on his way to recovering from a near-fatal brain hemorrhage last month, the Poison front man and "Celebrity Apprentice" cast member was back in the hospital Friday morning after suffering what his doctor described as a "warning stroke," NME.com reports.

Doctors also discovered a hole in Michaels' heart, which is apparently treatable, according to a statement on Michaels' website.

"The good news is that it is operable and treatable and we think we may have diagnosed the problem that caused the Transient Ischemic Attach (TIA) or warning stroke; however we feel it is highly unlikely this is connected to the brain hemorrhage he suffered just a few weeks earlier," his doctor is quoted as saying.

Michaels is scheduled to perform with Lynyrd Skynyrd July 10 at Comcast Theatre in Hartford. There's been no word on whether he'll be able to tour. Here's hoping he can.

After a high-profile performance (and pretty decent comedic turn) last weekend on "Saturday Night Live," pop singer Michael Buble has announced a tour that brings him to Mohegan Sun July 2-3. Tickets go on sale Friday, Feb. 5, for $100 and $85.

Buble sang a pair of songs on "SNL," including a duet with the fiery soul singer Sharon Jones on "Baby (You've Got What it Takes)," and also appeared opposite host Jon Hamm in the cheerfully menacing sketch "Hamm and Buble."

(Why NBC doesn't make these clips embeddable is anyone's guess. Same goes for you, Universal Music.)

Before I sign off and turn the reins back over to Eric, I wanted to bring a little attention to recent releases from a couple of great bands that have been fighting the good fight in the Northeast for years: Northampton's Fancy Trash and Maine's Rustic Overtones.

2010 concert announcements are coming fast and furious this week, and here's another big one: James Taylor and Carole King, two of the most beloved singer-songwriters of the last 50 years, are joining forces for the in-the-round style "Troubadour Reunion" tour. The pair plays the Mohegan Sun Arena on June 12.

On the eve of tonight's season premiere of "American Idol," Simon Cowell had a bombshell of an announcement: this will be his last season serving as a judge on the still highly related singing competition. His reason? To focus on bringing his other talent discovery show, "The X-Factor," to the States in the fall of 2011. Roger Catlin has the story here.

Folk icon Arlo Guthrie (pictured above) will headline a concert to benefit victims of the recent Northampton fires on Jan. 23 at Northampton's Academy of Music Theatre. Also on the bill are standout local acts Winterpills and the Primate Fiasco.

Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $15, with all proceeds going to the Northampton Neighbors Relief Fund. Advanced tickets are available here.

Looking for something to do tonight? You could do worse than to check out New Milford's own Medication, playing the Iron Horse in Northampton with much-buzzed-about Seattle band the Dutchess & the Duke.

Years
of heavy headbanging may be catching up to Slayer bassist/singer Tom
Araya. After fighting through severe back pain for months, he's now heading
in for surgery, and the band's upcoming American Carnage Tour
with Megadeth is in jeopardy.

If you were a reader of the "Buzz Bin" blog on Metromix, this one will be familiar to you. Back in November, I caught up with Glen Phillips to talk to him about his latest project, Works Progress Administration (WPA). This new band sees the Toad the Wet Sprocket front man joining forces with Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek) and Luke Bulla (Lyle Lovett's band), with further contributions from members of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Elvis Costello and the Imposters and Soul Coughing. Check out the band's debut single, "Always Have My Love," below, or download a free live EP here.

&lt;a href="http://wpamusic.bandcamp.com/album/wpa"&gt;Always Have My Love by Works Progress Administration&lt;/a&gt;

In this short interview, Phillips talks about WPA's genesis and emphasizes why they don't fit into the "supergroup" mold. WPA is headed back through the area this week, with a show at Infinity Hall in Norfolk on Thursday night. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $25-$45. Get more info here.

1. When I talked to you last spring about your solo work, you were deep in the process of trying to decide on a name for this project. How did you come to agree on Works Progress Administration?The Shackletons was taken, as were all my favorite Luddite/worker's revolution groups. WPA was the next in line.

2. There's a great amount of musical diversity amongst the eight of you, yet you managed to record 17 tracks in just 5 days. The resulting album sounds like an effortless collection of songs from a seasoned band with years of experience together. Did it really come together that easily, or was it at times a challenge to reconcile all of the talent in the room and get everyone moving in the same direction?It came together extremely easily. Everybody was there because they wanted to be and because they respected each other deeply, and everyone is mature enough to play to the song instead of showboating. If eight people are fighting to take up space, it's unlistenable, but if eight people are trying to create space it works quite well.

3. There's a ton of big label experience in the group, but you're very up-front about WPA being an independent band, and you're really leaning on a grassroots sort of effort to spread the word about the project. Do you find that your relationship with your fans is being redefined at all through this experience?It's hard to tell. There's a lot of stories being told out there right now with social media and the whole new quiver of communications arrows. While we're utilizing them as much as we can, I don't think any of us live too deeply in that world. You can reach more people directly now than ever before, but so can everyone else, so I think there may be a little information fatigue going on. I hope that those who have managed to discover us feel like we're there for them, though. There's been nothing in national music magazines or TV, and we don't have the money to buy ads, so the only reason anyone is showing up is because they read about it in a local paper or found us through a friend. We appreciate that.

4. You describe WPA as an "expandable collective." Who can we expect to see performing at your upcoming Northeast dates?The group has solidified around a five piece-Luke, Sean and Glen (me), with Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing) on bass and Jerry Roe on drums.

5. WPA is bound to be constantly saddled with the "supergroup" label. Do you feel like that cheapens the project at all, or is it something you're comfortable with?None of us like the supergroup label. We're just a band, and some of us have a past. We're here because we want to be, not because a marketing team threw us together. And supergroups don't tour in a minivan with no tour manager or crew.

If you're one of John Mayer's 2.85 million Twitter followers, don't be discouraged that his feed has gone silent this week. The Fairfield native hasn't gone all Miley Cyrus on you - he's simply in the midst of a "digital cleanse."

To usher in the new decade, Mayer came up with an interesting challenge - a clean break from his daily technology addictions to serve as a sort of "defragmenting" of his "mental and psychological hard drive." And he invited his fans to join him.

The challenge isn't so extreme as to render it impossible. Email is allowed, just not using your cell phone. Phone calls are fair game, but don't use your phone for sending out anything else. And stay off the social networking and celebrity gossip sites. (If you're reading this, chances are you're not participating.)

So far, all seems to be going according to plan - Mayer's Twitter feed has laid silent since the New Year. He'll report on his experiences when he comes "back on the grid" on Friday.

Mayer embarks on a world tour in support of his latest album, "Battle Studies," with a week of dates overseas later this month. He plays the Mohegan Sun Arena on Feb. 19 with Michael Franti and Spearhead. The show is already sold out, but you can bid on front-row tickets at www.johnmayerauction.com. Proceeds from the ticket auctions will support the Back To You Fund, which seeks to distribute monies to a wide range of organizations which support programs in health care, education, support for the arts, and development of talent.

Wilco's 2008 show at the Shubert in New Haven offered a harsh lesson in pent-up demand. The Chicago band's first Connecticut date in nearly five years sold out almost instantly, and if you didn't act fast you didn't get in.

The wait for the state's next Wilco date has proven to be a little easier to swallow, as the band announced this morning that it will play The Bushnell's Mortensen Hall on April 9.

Wilco's April tour also brings the band to Lupo's in Providence (April 4), the Orpheum Theatre in Boston (April 6) and the Capitol Center in Concord, N.H. (April 7). This will be Wilco's first visit to Hartford in its 15+ year history. A web pre-sale will be held on Wednesday, with tickets going on sale to the general public on Friday. Tickets appear to be $35, and Wilco lists the show as an "Evening With" format.

In other Wilco news, the band is currently featured in the third installment of Beck's "Record Club" project, covering Skip Spence's "Oar" in its entirety with Jamie Lidell and Feist. Here's the latest selection, featuring Jeff Tweedy and Feist playing "Broken Heart."

Thursday night, the Iron Horse presents the latest in an annual series of shows in which local acts pay tribute to some of the biggest stars in music.

"Don't Do Me Like That" will feature a laundry list of the Valley's finest acts covering - you guessed it - Tom Petty. Ray Mason, the Fawns, SwillMerchants, Spouse, National Carpet and Fancy Trash (among many others) will choose from material spanning Petty's four-decade career with the Heartbreakers, as a solo artist and with bands like Mudcrutch and the Traveling Wilburys.

Each act will perform a Petty song and one of their own originals. Show time is 7 p.m., and tickets are $13 at the door. For the full lineup, or to purchase advanced tickets, visit www.iheg.com.

In a classy move by the Iron Horse Entertainment Group, ticket proceeds will benefit victims of the recent Northampton fires, via the Red Cross. Petty himself lost a home as a victim of arson in 1987.

We're in the midst of the quietest couple of weeks of the year for music news, but here are a few items you might have missed in recent days.

The biggest news this weekend was the passing of Georgia singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt, who slipped into a coma after an apparent suicide attempt and died on Christmas day. Chesnutt was partially paralyzed and relegated to a wheelchair following a car accident when he was 18 and, despite having some health insurance, was deeply in debt from his medical bills. He gained attention early in his career when Michael Stipe produced his first two albums, and in 1996 everyone from R.E.M. to Madonna covered his songs on the second Sweet Relief album to benefit musicians in need of health insurance. Chesnutt released some 16 albums during his two-decade career and also had a part in the 1996 Billy Bob Thorton movie "Sling Blade." He was 45.

In other news, Susan Boyle continues to dominate the Billboard Top 200. "I Dreamed a Dream" has stayed in the top slot for a month by beating down new releases from the likes of Alicia Keys, Rihanna and Norah Jones, and she's making a strong run at Taylor Swift for the top-selling release of the year.

Finally, the Dave Matthews Band has been identified as the highest-grossing live act of the decade by Pollstar. DMB pulled in nearly $530 million at the turnstiles, out-grossing the likes of Celine Dion, Kenny Chesney, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, U2 and Madonna.

Here's an early holiday treat for you Lilith Fair fans out there - after a decade of inactivity, Sarah McLachlan is set to take the show back out on the road this year.

Earlier this year, Lilith co-founder Terry McBride announced that the Fair would make its return during the summer of 2010. Now we have more concrete details, including a preliminary list of cities.

Hartford was not included in the first batch of major cities announced earlier this month, but it would hardly be a surprise if we make the cut when more locations are announced in the new year - Lilith did come to the Meadows every summer during its highly successful initial run (1997-1999).

Let's hope that we do get a date, because the eclectic roster of artists that have already signed on is quite impressive. In addition to Lilith regulars like McLachlan, Sheryl Crow and the Indigo Girls, Canadian indie-dance-rockers Metric, country duo Sugarland, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu and Tegan and Sara are all set to hop on the tour bus, as are newcomers like Sara Bareilles, Colbie Caillat and Corinne Bailey Rae.

You can score a free MP3 download of McLachlan's hit "Angel," recorded live at Lilith '98 with Emmylou Harris, when you sign up for email updates at LilithFair.com.

Geek-rock legends They Might Be Giants have long been known for pulling out all the stops, and their New Year's Eve shows at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton will be no different.

Yes, you read that correctly: shows. The two Johns will get warmed up with a family-friendly afternoon performance (3 p.m.) that's sure to draw heavily from their growing collection of educational kids music, including the recently released album "Here Comes Science."

But it's the 8 p.m. show for the older crowd that should be a real doozy for long-time fans. First, there's the opener, accomplished folkie Peter Stampfel from the Holy Modal Rounders. Then, there's the TMBG lineup itself. The Giants will be playing with a full eight-piece band, including the Tricerachops Horns, who have backed up the Johns on occasion since 2007.

Finally, a third John will be making a just-announced guest appearance. Popular author, actor and humorist John Hodgman has joined the bill - not as the PC from Apple's popular "I'm a Mac" commercials, but in a reprisal of his role as the Deranged Millionaire who forced TMBG to play a new song for each venue they visited on their 2005 "Venue Songs" DVD/CD.

Yes, it's true - Eric is on vacation for the next few weeks. I've gotten over my jealousy, and I'll be doing my best to keep you in the loop in his absence. I'm hopeful that the sweet new specs that I picked up a few weeks ago will help me channel the great taste and quick wit that makes Eric's blog one of my favorite stops on the 'Net each morning. I realize these are big shoes to fill, so please be gentle (it is the holiday season, after all).

It's that time of year when we're bombarded by an onslaught of Best Of lists (you'll soon be able to check out my list of favorite albums in the comments area of Eric's Top 10 albums of 2009 post from last week). With 2010 knocking on the door, we're additionally being treated to picks for Best of the Decade, and one of those lists in particular is creating quite a stir.

Billboard's "Best of the 2000s" recap launched last week, and its Artists of the Decade list offers a particularly interesting glance at rock music's commercial influence (or lack thereof) over the last 10 years. Just a single band broke into the Top 10, finishing at No. 7. And that band was none other than Nickelback.

(The list's Top 5 are Eminem, Usher, Nelly, Beyonce and Alicia Keys. The only other rock acts in Billboard's Top 20? Creed (18) and Linkin Park (19).)

Before you get too up in arms over those results, consider the source and the corresponding criteria ("the 20 music stars with the best performance on the Billboard 200 albums chart and the Hot 100 over the last ten years"). It's nevertheless perplexing that the two top rock "artists" of the last decade are bands that it's become fashionable to relentlessly hate on in public. Plenty of people are buying this music, after all - both Nickelback and Creed have sold more than 30 million albums in their careers, and Nickelback was just nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. But how many people do you know who would admit to owning those albums?

There comes a time in every music writer's life when he should -- nay, must! -- take all the vacation time allotted him, lest he lose it and reap no material benefit in exchange.

That time, for me, is now. I've cashed in a big chunk of days off, which will keep me out of the office and off this blog for the better part of a month (with a few probable exceptions: we have a handful of podcasts that will be ready soon).

In my absence, I leave you in the very capable hands of guest blogger Brian Lee, former Metromix contributor, photographer and all-around music fan and stand-up guy.

Happy holidays to all -- here's hoping Santa brings you all the great music your hearts desire. I'll be back just in time to report on Lady Gaga's performance Jan. 17 in Wallingford.

Weezer singer Rivers Cuomo cracked three ribs and suffered "internal damage" Sunday morning when the tour bus he was riding in skidded off the New York State Thruway after hitting a patch of black ice west of Albany, the band reports on its website.

The singer and an assistant, Sarah Kim, were taken to a nearby hospital. The bus was headed from Toronto to Boston, where Weezer was scheduled to perform today. The band has canceled the remainder of its December tour, though webmaster Karl Koch (aka, Karlophone) says the band plans to reschedule the lost dates.

Cuomo, a Mansfield native, was traveling with his wife, their 2-year-old daughter, who were not hurt when the driver lost control of the bus, which skidded onto the median, then swerved back across the highway, hit a guardrail and came to rest in a ditch.

The rest of the band members were riding in different buses, which arrived on the scene about 20 minutes later.

Weezer released a new album, "Raditude," last month. The cover features a photograph taken by a Middletown man of his dog in mid-jump.

It's like they're switching places or something: Garth Brooks is coming out of "retirement" for what could be a 16-week run headlining at the Encore/Wynn casino in Las Vegas, the Kansas City Star reports.

And A-Ha, the Norwegian pop trio perhaps best known for the "Speed Racer" video to "Take On Me," has decided to call it quits after completing its current tour, Agence France-Presse reports.

First, who knew A-Ha was still around?

Second, the Garth Brooks thing makes total sense. After all, he's the man who toppled Elvis Presley from his spot as the best-selling solo artist of all time. What better way to follow up than by going to Vegas -- just like Elvis.

With a new album on the way, emo heartthrob Chris Carrabba and his band, Dashboard Confessional, are streaming the first single, "Belle of the Boulevard."

The tune adheres to the Dashboard ethos, with murmuring verses blooming into a big, soaring chorus as Carrabba pushes his voice to its upper range. (The album, "Alter the Ending," is due Nov. 10 on Vagrant.)

Carrabba, a West Hartford native who moved to Florida as a teenager, started Dashboard Confessional as a one-man side project from his band at the time, Further Seems Forever. Dashboard quickly became his primary focus after his second album, 2002's "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most," was a surprise hit.

The band's most recent album, "The Shade of Poison Trees," came out in 2007.

Dashboard Confessional kicks off a 29-date tour Nov. 7 in Kentucky, but there's no local love: the road trip doesn't include a Connecticut stop.

The digital format has changed music in numerous ways. Is one of them that bands have become more anonymous?

Yes, according to Robin Hilton of NPR. In a blog post last week, Hilton and colleague Bob Boilen theorized that "general knowledge" about bands began faltering with the introduction of CDs and their tiny liner notes -- which have largely disappeared altogether in the digital age.

Interesting notion, but I think the premise is wrong.

First of all, most listeners don't fuss over liner notes the way avid fans (read: music nerds, a category in which I include myself) do. In the '70s, how much did average listeners know about the Ramones beyond the fact that they adopted the last name Ramone? In the '80s,

Second, between MySpace, Wikipedia and various other sources -- like the biographical information on LastFM mentioned by the first commenter -- it's arguably easier than ever to find out more about the people making the music you love. That is, if you care to look.

It's Banned Book Week, as my colleague Susan Campbell mentioned the other day.

Books aren't the only target of censorship, however, so it's excellent to see that the Banned Book Week people (that'd be the ACLU of Connecticut and the Connecticut Library Association) have included music again this year.

The second-annual First Amendment Rock Off happens Thursday, Oct. 1, at Black-Eyed Sally's in Hartford, where the McDonald Teague Band will perform songs by Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, the Beatles and other acts whose music has been banned at various times over the past 50-plus years.

Or they could just play songs from Clear Channel Radio's list of "lyrically questionable" tunes to avoid after Sept. 11, 2001 -- including Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World," Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World" and, for some reason, the Drifters' "On Broadway."

There's a $10 cover for the show ($5 in advance here), which runs from 8-11 p.m.

Aside from the Jonas Brothers' three-night stand at Mohegan and the forthcoming second movie in the "Twilight" series, is there anything more exciting for tweens than the release next week of the new Paramore album?

Who knows, but if the answer is "not even," then here comes a little sneak preview action (presuming, that is, that you haven't already found a leaked copy somewhere on the web): Paramore streams the new album in its entirety right here until Saturday.

That's a very generous thing for Paramore to do, because it allows you the opportunity to hear the album for free so you can make an informed decision about whether to save your money for one more week and buy the solo debut from Jemina Pearl instead. (Time saving hint: The answer is yes, you should save your money for one more week.)

And away we go: Even as the toxicology report says that Michael Jackson died from an overdose of the sedative propofol, rumors that Jackson is still alive are circulating thanks in part to this shaky, blurry video that purports to show the King of Pop jumping out of the back of the same van that drove his body to the coroner's office.

It won't be long until we get super-convincing photos of Jackson and Elvis Presley running a pizzeria in southwest Oregon or rutabaga farming on a commune in Finland.

In Friday's Wall Street Journal, John Jurgensen (a Courant alumnus and pal) writes about the return of the diva, via forthcoming albums by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. "It will be a challenge for either diva to score beyond their core audience," Jurgensen writes, and he ain't kidding.

Sunday, the New York Times ran this article on one of the few bright spots in the music industry: publishing deals. In essence, labels sign promising songwriters to such deals with the hope of making money from the songs they write. Veteran artists now tend to retain the rights to their publishing -- there can be a lot of money at stake -- but up-and-comers tend not to have as much leverage.

And today, Salon takes issue with the way talented women musicians are praised for not playing like girls.

Topping the list was this excellent profile in the New York Times of Memphis punk-rocker Jay Reatard (above), who releases a new album, "Watch Me Fall," Tuesday.

The Times magazine weighed in with a cover story offering a fascinating look behind the scenes of the forthcoming video game "The Beatles: Rock Band," which will offer 45 songs in different settings covering the band's career, from the Cavern to Shea Stadium to the rooftop concert at Apple Corps.

NPR explores the new music academy started at the University of Central Oklahoma by Flaming Lips guitarist Stephen Drozd and band manager Scott Booker.

And Kiss has announced it will release its forthcoming album, "Sonic Boom," Oct. 6 exclusively through Wal-Mart stores. The new disc will come with a bonus CD featuring 15 Kiss classics and a live DVD shot during a performance in Buenos Aires.

Jim Dickinson, a musician and record producer who worked with the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, Big Star and the Replacements, died Saturday after undergoing triple-bypass heart surgery. He was 67.

Dickinson had lived in the Memphis area since he was a kid, and his Zebra Ranch studio was a short drive away in the north Mississippi hill country. His sons, Luther and Cody Dickinson, are two-thirds of the band North Mississippi Allstars.

Among his other accomplishments, Dickinson's band Dixie Flyers backed Aretha Franklin on her 1970 album "Spirit in the Dark." He also played piano on the Stones' "Wild Horses" and produced Big Star's stunning and weird third album, "Third," and the Replacements' "Pleased to Meet Me." He also released a handful of solo albums, including 2007's "Killers From Space."

Joe Perry once told me that Aerosmith thinks of playing Connecticut as a local gig, which makes them practically a local band. So here's some local band news: Aerosmith has canceled the rest of its summer tour with ZZ Top to let singer Steven Tyler fully recuperate from injuries he received last week when he fell off the stage in Sturgis, S.D.

The singer was dancing to "Love in an Elevator" when he topped off stage (possibly because he was favoring a leg he injured in June when the Boston group played Mohegan Sun). Tyler broke his shoulder and required stitches to his head.

And Woodstock coverage continues:

In the Courant today, William Weirwrites about the batch of photos that a 17-year-old New Haven kid took of the 1969 festival. The pictures were more or less forgotten about until recently, when they were published in a limited-edition book and put on display at the Newseum in Washington DC.

Even better: The Journal reprints the disdainful editorial it ran at the time, headlined "By Squalor Possessed." In structure and supercilious, sneering tone, the same thing could have run last week. "It would be a curious America if the unwashed, more or less permanently stoned on pot or LSD, were running very many things," the editorial reads in part, warning of the dangers of complacency in the face of the looming hippie threat. Maybe some dinosaurs haven't gone extinct after all.

In album news, Phish Tuesday revealed the tracklisting for its upcoming release "Joy," due Sept. 8. (The band performs Friday at Comcast Theatre in Hartford.) The songs:1. Backwards Down The Number Line2. Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan 3. Joy 4. Sugar Shack 5. Ocelot6. Kill Devil Falls7. Light8. I Been Around 9. Time Turns Elastic 10. Twenty Years Later

UK grime rapper Dizzee Rascal gave NME.com a look at his upcoming effort, "Tongue 'N' Cheek," which is scheduled for release Sept. 22 (in the UK, at any rate). The songs:

Footage of preparations for Michael Jackson's 50-night run at London's O2 Arena will hit movie theaters this fall, NME.com reports. The film, "This Is It," was culled from hundreds of hours of rehearsal footagec. It's scheduled for release Oct. 28. Sony Pictures says it has the full support of the Jackson family.

In other music news, Morrissey is asking fans to boycott a series of upcoming reissues, reports the Morrissey fanzine True to You. The former Smiths singer claims he had no input on the collections -- two boxed sets of singles from EMI, a boxed set of Smiths CDs on Rhino and various Smiths vinyl reissues on Warner Bros. Morrissey also charges that he has received no royalties for the past decade from Warner Bros., and nothing from EMI since 1992.

Anti Records reports this morning that Australian rocker Nick Cave is set to publish a new novel, "The Death of Bunny Munro," this September via Penguin. It's his first novel since his 1989 literary debut, "And the Ass Saw the Angel."

Also, just in case you've managed to get "Drops of Jupiter" out of your head, Train releases a new album, "Save Me San Francisco," Oct. 27.

New York punk icon Willy "Mink" DeVille died of pancreatic cancer Aug. 6, EW.com reported. He was 58.

Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl has a new project with Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, the BBC reported. The group, calling itself Them Crooked Vultures, debuted Sunday night at Metro in Chicago.

National Public Radio Sunday posted an interview with Van Morrison about his genre-defining 1968 album "Astral Weeks." Find it here. Morrison performs Oct. 24 in Waterbury and Oct. 28 at MGM Grand at Foxwoods.

And in The New York Times, Jon Pareles writes about the powerful nostalgia of Woodstock. I tackled the same topic in the Courant's Arts section, arguing that Altamont is a more fitting symbol of the '60s than Woodstock.

New Jersey jam band Railroad Earth performs Sept. 18 at Toad's Place, which makes this an excellent time for this reminder: Naming your band after the works of Beat authors -- thereby implying that you have read, understood and deeply internalized the work in question -- is not cool so much as it is pretentious and annoying.

Railroad Earth, which takes its name from a chapter in Jack Kerouac's travelogue "Lonesome Traveler," is hardly the only offender. Boomer folk duo Aztec Two Step took its name from a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Vermont jam band Japhy Ryder is named for a character in Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums" and the ever-contrarian Steely Dan chose to name itself after the dildo in William S. Burroughs' "Naked Lunch."

(John Dos Passos preceded the Beats, but Manhattan Transfer deserves a mention, too, for lifting its name from Dos Passos' 1925 novel of the same name).

Even if you have internalized the work in question, so what? Lots of people have read the Beats (or Dos Passos or Pynchon or Stephen King or whomever) and most of them are able to resist the urge to advertise it. You should be one of those people.

The Courant of late has been emphasizing coverage of big-name pop acts, but often the most interesting stories (and music) in music are coming from artists who haven't made it big. Here are a few of those from over the weekend.

NPR over the weekend ran this feature about Malaysian-born singer and songwriter Zee Avi (her CD is reviewed here, too). She mixes jazz, vintage Americana and country on her self-titled debut, which also includes a droll cover of Morrissey's "First of the Gang to Die."

It was a strong weekend for NPR's music coverage: The radio network also ran this story about Taqwacore, essentially hardcore Muslim punk. Based initially on a 2003 novel by Michael Muhammed Knight, "The Taqwacores," the concept has become something of an underground movement in the U.S. But are the tenets of Islam (or, really, any religion) mutually exclusive from the tenets of punk rock?

The New York Times ran this story Sunday reporting that streaming media -- music, TV, etc. -- has the potential to usurp the role that has been played by file-sharing services like Bittorrent. The result? Hope for a music industry that (wrongly) blames many of its problems on piracy.

Also, former "American Idol" contestant Alexis Cohen was killed over the weekend in a hit-and-run car crash, reports the Morning Call of Allentown, Pa. An Associated Press update this morning says that police have made an arrest in the crash, which happened in Seaside Heights, N.J.

This is either the greatest thing ever, or a sign that Twitter is just about over: Bootsy Collins has signed up, as @Bootsy_Collins.

Not only is Bootsy the nastiest funk bass player around (that's him, and his brother Catfish, on James Brown's "Sex Machine," and Bootsy held down the low end on the best of the Parliament-Funkadelic stuff, too), the photo above shows he's a natty dresser, too.

He just seems ... too esoteric for Twitter. It's him, though (or his people), and now he's even taking phone calls. Sort of. In the interest of hard hitting investigative journalism, I called the posted on his Twitter feed a few minutes ago, 513-259-2501, which connects to a recorded message of Bootsy saying things like, "I do give a funk about you, baby," and "I want to invite you into my personal stash."

It's basically a marketing gimmick, with the promise of future text messages, but it's still kind of cool to hear that slightly loopy, totally blissed-out voice say, "I might just call you back. And I have been known to get into personal relationships."

He was the king of pop and a troubled soul; a pop-culture icon who recorded the top-selling album of all time before allegations of sexual misconduct tarnished his reputation forever.

Michael Jackson, perhaps the biggest music star of the past century, died Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles. He was 50.

Jackson was rushed to UCLA Medical Center after he was found unconscious in the house he was renting while rehearsing for a string of 50 sold-out concerts in London.

It's simply not possible to overstate Jackson's impact on popular culture in the 1980s. His 1982 album, "Thriller," is the best-selling album of all time worldwide, with sales of more than 100 million units, and Jackson's influence continues to loom large over the worlds of pop, hip-hop and R&B. He was a gifted singer, a talented songwriter and a flashy dancer, and no one in the early '80s made better use of what was then a new format: the music video.

As has been reported elsewhere, Fox 61 is moving into the Courant building later this year. Fair enough, there's plenty of space these days. Building them a new studio here on Broad Street means some shuffling around of the current occupants, including relocating Features across the building to where the Sports department used to be.

This means packing. Which means winnowing. And over the past few days, over the course of sorting through the piles of CDs on my desk, I've been struck by just how much bad music is out there. Not just music that's not to my taste, but actual bad music.

It's no wonder record sales are down -- some of this stuff is terrible. And it's not genre-specific, either: blues, rap, country, pop, indie-rock, jam, folk -- there's godawful music coming out in every category.

Maybe this is the dark side of the technology that has made music easier to record and distribute. As with so many other things, though, just because you can doesn't mean you should.

No Doubt fans hoping the band's summer tour would lead to the quartet recording new music are in luck, sort of: There is indeed new music, but it's a cover.

This version of "Stand and Deliver" by Adam and the Ants appeared online earlier today. Is it a tease for the summer tour (which stops June 28 at Mohegan Sun)? A hint that more new, and original, songs are coming?

Verizon has an exclusive deal to put "Guitar Hero" on mobile phones, but iPhone users shouldn't fret: "Tap Tap Revenge" is pretty much the same thing, and now it's available in a Coldplay version.

The concept is simple: tap the screen of your iPhone in time (sort of) to one of 10 Coldplay songs included with the app. Among the songs you can choose from are "Clocks," "Yellow," "Speed of Sound" on the "easy" level; "In My Place," "Fix You" and harder versions of "Clocks" and "Yellow" on the "medium" level; and "Shiver," "Lost!" and still-harder versions of "Clocks," Yellow," "In My Place" and "Fix You" on the "hard" level.

Playing is entertaining enough for a few minutes, though the game amounts to spending $5 to drain your iPhone's battery with a quickness. I'll stick to Sudoku. Or, for "Tetris" fans, try Titus Andronicus' "Loadin.'"

You'd think that after 20 years in the music business, Billy Corgan would know a drummer or two who would want to play with Smashing Pumpkins.

Nope.

Corgan is holding drummer auditions April 10 in Los Angeles to replace Jimmy Chamberlain, who ended his latest stint with the band March 20. Think you've got what it takes? Send your background info, photos and performance web links to this e-mail address.

Three e-mails I received this morning in quick succession announced the regrouping of Limp Bizkit (this follows on the heels of similar news about Creed), a new album in the works by Collective Soul and a release date for the next record from Fastball.

We've already lived through the '90s once. Do we really have to do it again?

"Our whole marriage was based on doing drugs," the "Rehab" singer tells The News of the World.

Winehouse, 25, has spent much of her vacation canoodling with a new man, and she claims she's in love -- and so happy she's starting to think about recording new material for what would be her first album since "Back in Black" in 2006.

Here's hoping she's found true love, or at least a more stable infatuation (her tone is reminiscent of how she sounded in this disturbing Rolling Stone profile from a few years ago) and that she's kicked the drugs for good.

This just in: Kelly Clarkson releases her fourth album, "All I Ever Wanted," March 17, according to this.

It's Clarkson's first album since her well-publicized spat with label head Clive Davis over her decision to (co-)write her own material for her third album, "My December." Wikipedia reports that Clarkson, winner of the first season of "American Idol," worked with producer and OneRepublic front man Ryan Tedder on the new album, which is said to feature songs influenced by the likes of '90s alt-rock band Garbage.

The first single, "My Life Would Suck Without You," is expected to hit radio soon.

It's the second single, and a huge hit, from Beyonce's latest album, "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," but is there a backstory to "If I Were a Boy?" Why, yes. Here are seven facts about the tune:

It's been viewed more than 29 million times on YouTube since the clip went up in October. (Embedding is disabled, but you can watch it here.)

It's reached the top 10 on 25 different singles charts around the world, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Japan, Turkey and the U.S.

The song has already gone gold with sales of more than 500,000 units, according to the RIAA, and is rapidly closing in on platinum status with just shy of 1 million units sold.

It's not actually Beyonce's song. It was written by 21-year-old
aspiring singer and songwriter BC Jean (pictured above) and producer Toby Gad. Jean moved to Los Angeles at 17 with her parents' blessing, and financial support. But the open line of credit had run out and Jean was looking for a day job when she learned Beyonce was covering the song. "I was going to have to either move home or get a 9-to-5 job, and that leaves no time for music," Jean told me this week. "So it was a really stressful time, and then this happened."

Despite a claim by Fox News that Beyonce had "stolen" the song, Jean was aware the singer was recording it, and receives appropriate credit -- which translates to payment. And if you're getting paid, it's not stolen. Writing songs for other people "was not my initial intention," Jean says. "But it's opened so many doors, it's amazing." Indeed, she signed a record deal with a subsidiary of Sony BMG right before Christmas.

The origin of the song lies in an offhand remark Jean made while walking through Times Square with Gad and trying to resist the enticing smell of pizza. "I said, 'That pizza smells really good, and I'm trying not to eat carbs and I wish I were a boy so I didn't care!' Jean says. "That's how the song started, and [Gad] was like, 'What else would you do if you were a boy?' And I was going through a really hard breakup with my first real love, so I said, 'I'd be a better man than my ex-boyfriend!'"

Various remixes of the song include this one by R. Kelly, who turns the tune into a conversation about trust. No irony there.

"We feel the century we live in, we feel the music of our generation and we do our job well," they write on their website. So well, in fact, that Anton Bunin and Pavel Grekov (who play together in the Russian retro-rock band The Please) guarantee that every song they write, in any style, will be a hit.

That would be quite a feat, if they could accomplish what has eluded pros like Linda Perry or Pharrell Williams or, well, anyone. Holland-Dozier-Holland was a pretty great songwriting team, and even they didn't have a 100 percent hit record.

Bunin & Grekov didn't respond to my request for more information (for example: how can you guarantee that? And how do you define "hit?"), but they've posted a few samples of their work online. It all sounded largely the same to me, but let's throw open the floor. Do you hear a hit?

Ron Asheton, guitarist for late '60s and early '70s proto-punk band the Stooges, was found dead Tuesday in his home in Ann Arbor, Mich., Reuters reports. He was 60.

Asheton (shown here at a concert in Slovenia in September 2008), his brother Scott and Iggy Pop were founding members of the Stooges, revered for their primitive rock 'n' roll bashing on a trio of now-seminal albums released between 1969 and 1973: "The Stooges" (which featured "I Wanna Be Your Dog"), "Fun House" and "Raw Power." The band split in 1974, with Pop pursuing a successful solo career in music while Ron Asheton acted in camp horror movies such as "Frostbiter: The Wrath of the Wendigo."

The Stooges reunited a few years ago, and in 2007 released "The Weirdness," their first album in more than 30 years.

Police do not suspect foul play in Asheton's death, which RollingStone.com reports was probably the result of a heart attack on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

Looks like 2009 will be a good year for fans of jam bands: Among other things, Phishreunites for three shows in Viriginia in March (with talk of a summer tour to follow), and there are also new records and tours on the way from Derek Trucks and Umphrey's McGee and, on April 14, the first studio album in four years from Dave Matthews Band.

If that's not enough, the Dead has announced its first tour in five years, a 19-show jaunt that includes a stop April 26 at XL Center in Hartford.

This incarnation includes original Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, along with keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and Allman Brothers Band/Gov't Mule guitarist Warren Haynes. Chimenti and Haynes played with the Dead last October at the "Change Rocks" concert in Pennsylvania in support of Barack Obama.

"We've got some unfinished business," guitarist/singer Bob Weir says in a statement. "Everybody has a whole new bag of tricks; we have the body of material we worked up over the years and we have a mind meld going on here and it would be a sin to let that just wither and die."

Rumors have been circulating for a while that U2's new album was nearing completion. Now it's official: The Irish band releases its 12th studio album, "No Line On the Horizon," March 3 in North America.

It's the quartet's first album since 2004's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," which has sold more than 9 million copies. U2 recorded the new record in Morocco, Dublin, New York and London, with production from Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite.

With Nickelback now alone atop the douche-rock heap, the members of Creed are ready to slice off a heap of the profits by putting aside their differences in the common pursuit of a big, fat payday.

With "significant dollars" on the line, singer Scott Stapp and his former bandmates are in talks to hit the road in 2009, Billboard.com reports today.

The group split acrimoniously in 2004, with Stapp embarking on a solo career and the other members -- guitarist Mark Tremonti, drummer Scott Phillips and original bassist Brian Marshall -- forming Alter Bridge with singer Myles Kennedy. Kennedy is said to be Jimmy Page's choice to replace Robert Plant if a version of Led Zeppelin were to tour next year.

Interestingly, according to the band's Wikipedia entry, Tremonti once said he would only participate in a Creed reunion if world peace were at stake, while Stapp said the band would get back together "if hell freezes over." Just like the Eagles, who at least waited 15 years.

Musical guests have been appearing more frequently on "The Colbert Report" on this year, from John Legend to Carole King to James Taylor to Wilco.

So when word slipped out that Stephen Colbert was planning a musical Christmas special, there was great anticipation in Colbert Nation over the guest list: Elvis Costello, Feist, Willie Nelson, John Legend, Toby Keith and Jon Stewart (with songs written by Fountain of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger).

The episode, "A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All," finds Colbert scheduled to perform with Costello in New York City, but a snow storm strands the mock pundit in his cabin upstate. Fortunately, a whole bunch of musicians (and Stewart) just happen to be nearby, and they stop in to help celebrate the holidays.

"A Colbert Christmas" airs Nov. 23 on Comedy Central, and is available on DVD two days later -- "the perfect stocking stuffer," says a press release announcing the run date. A portion of the proceeds benefits Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks.

Fans of Bruce Springsteen may as well stick to their own neighborhoods for trick-or-treating this year -- due to "catastrophic success," the Boss and his wife, Patti Scialfa, have decided not to hand out candy this Halloween.

In a statement on his website, the Springsteens say, "So as not to inconvenience you this Halloween, due to 'catastrophic success' (read: too many visitors for the neighborhood to handle) and concern for the safety of kids and parents! we won't be having our usual Halloween display this year in Rumson. We wish everyone a safe and Happy Halloween!"

That's a shame, but I hear Bon Jovi is handing out full-sized Snickers bars.

From an online chat yesterday on EPSN.com with former Guns N' Roses bassist and Seattle sports buff Duff McKagan:

Cory, Seattle: Do have any interest in becoming a part owner in a new NBA team or perhaps an NHL team if it were to come to Seattle? Duff McKagan: I
don't have the money for that. That's different kind of money! I'd be
part owner if they gave it to me! Wouldn't that be great to have direct
say about a team? Out of my league. Way out of my league.

mike (toronto): u do a GNR reunion and u will have "that" kind of money for sureDuff McKagan: (Laughing) Yeah. Who knows.

Funny
that Mike from Toronto should mention GNR -- yesterday was also when
Guns N' Roses announced a release date for Axl Rose's alleged
masterwork "Chinese Democracy." The album, 14 years and $13 million in
the making, is scheduled to come out Nov. 23 on Geffen. McKagan was not
involved.

Smashing Pumpkins isn't the only band releasing new songs through video games: Oasis has announced that it will make it's latest album, "Dig Out Your Soul," available for download on the forthcoming "Guitar Hero World Tour" game, due out early next year, NME.com reports.

The difference is, Oasis has already released the album through more traditional outlets, whereas Smashing Pumpkins is releasing its new single, "G.L.O.W.," exclusively through the new Guitar Hero before making it available elsewhere.

Vampires are all the rage again, what with "True Blood" on HBO and the forthcoming movies "Blood: The Last Vampire" and "Twilight," so it makes sense that bands would get in on the act, too.

But not necessarily the bands you might think. Goth shlock-rockers Evanescence? Nope. Try teen pop-punk band Paramore. The group contributed two songs to the soundtrack to "Twilight," NME.com reports, and is set to film a video for one of them, "Decode."

The soundtrack is said to also include tunes from Perry Farrell, Muse and actor Robert Pattinson, who plays hunky vampire Edward Cullin. The movie opens Nov. 21.

It was a sad day when No Depression folded in the spring, but the magazine's editors have regrouped and relaunched today as No Depression.com, a comprehensive online repository of writing about roots music. (Disclosure: I was a contributor for three years to the print edition of the magazine.)

In addition to reviews and features, the new No Depression features audio and video and daily updates, and the editors will collect the best of the site's long-form journalism into a twice-annual "bookazine," published by the University of Texas press. I received the first edition in the mail the other day, and it's a handsome collection of interesting articles.

This year's Squeeze tour has apparently gone so well that songwriting team Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford have plans to record a new album together for the first time in more than a decade.

The two made their intentions known on a forthcoming episode of the A&E series "Private Sessions," which is slated to air Oct. 5 at 9 a.m. Eastern. Tilbrook told host Lynn Hoffman that he never thought the two would get back together to write songs.

"In a weird way I was sort of happy with it," he said in a clip of the show provided by A&E. "I was happy with my solo world and Chris was in his solo world, and to an extent, we're continuing on with that. But it's so nice to have the Squeeze thing back together again. And also, it's nice to think that something we're going to do now, we are going to work together on a record, a new record, and start writing together again."

Recording yourself playing guitar used to involve at least two, sometimes three pieces of gear: the guitar, the recorder and, for old-school recording without a direct line-in, a microphone to capture the sound on tape.

Now all you need is the guitar, thanks to the latest from Ovation. The Connecticut guitar-maker, a subsidiary of Bloomfield's Kaman Music Company, last week introduced the iDea, an acoustic/electric guitar with a built-in "recording studio" that allows you to record guitar by itself or guitar and voice -- a potentially handy songwriting tool. You can also download tracks to jam along with, and upload scratch recordings to a computer or other recorder.

Carolyn Moreau, the Courant's resident videographer, has more on the iDea in this video:

At SXSW in 2004, Chicago singer and songwriter Rachael Yamagata gave one of the most wrenching performances I've ever seen when she started to weep while performing her song "Worn Me Down."

When I interviewed her a year or two later, she recalled it ruefully as an emotional day.

Seems like it's not the last one she's had, judging by "Elephants," the first song from her forthcoming two CD/LP album, "Elephants ... Teeth Sinking Into Heart."

While I wish she would team with a producer able to resist the urge to over-dramatize the simple, wringing emotion of her songs (imagine this tune with one mournful violin instead of a whole string section), "Elephants" is a tantalizing preview of her sophomore full-length (and then some) album, which is due Oct. 7.

We live in strange times, when formerly alternative bands choose video games as a platform to debut new material. Yet that is just what Smashing Pumpkins is doing: The Chicago rock group headed by Billy Corgan is releasing its new single, "G.L.O.W.," as part of a downloadable song pack available exclusively for "Guitar Hero World Tour."

The new song, which will later be released on its own to the non-video game playing public, is bundled with "1979" and "The Everlasting Gaze." In addition, the game will come with Smashing Pumpkins' song "Today," and Corgan will appear as an in-game character when the latest "Guitar Hero" comes out this fall.

Although Aerosmith and others have made song packs available to play-along video games, Smashing Pumpkins is the first band to record a new song exclusively for one. You can bet, though, that the band won't be the last to try it.

The Followill boys continue to heighten anticipation for their fourth full-length album with a video for new tune "Sex on Fire," a taut, lean song with driving guitar and anguished-sounding vocals from singer Caleb Followill.

It's the second song the Kings of Leon have made available from the new album, "Only By the Night," which comes out Sept. 23. The band gave away the first song, "Crawl," as a free download last month.

Hank Williams III makes music that sounds more like his grandaddy's than his daddy's, but he doesn't sound much like either on "Long Hauls & Close Calls," the first single from his forthcoming record. "Damn Right Rebel Proud" comes out Oct. 21 on Record Store Day.

He describes the song as the album's "crossover" piece. "It's got a little bit of the scream for the kids in black and a little bit of the banjo and dobro for the country folks," he says in a press release that accompanied this link to a video for the song. It's not high-concept -- it's pretty much just Hank III and his friend goofing around in the mud -- but it's an early glimpse at his new material.

A few years ago, when we carelessly referred to the surviving members of the Doors as "The Doors," we got a nasty letter from some lawyer instructing us that henceforth, upon threat of rendition to a black site in an unspecified Eastern European country, that musical group should only be called "The Doors of the 21st Century."

Now they can't even be called that, according to the California supreme court. Earlier this month, the court denied a petition to review a lower court's ruling that organist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robbie Krieger, two of the surviving members of the legendary rock band The Doors, cannot perform, tour, promote the band or otherwise represent themselves as "The Doors" or "The Doors of the 21st Century" without written consent from "all partners of the Doors partnership" -- namely, drummer John Densmore, who objected to his former bandmates' decision to tour a few years ago, and the estates of singer Jim Morrison and his wife, Pam Courson, respectively.

Further, Krieger and Manzarek are required to split with Densmore and the estates all profits they made using the Doors' name, and they're prohibited from using the name, likeness or voice of Jim Morrison to promote their band or their concerts.

Nice one, Densmore. Nothing's more rock 'n' roll than suing your bandmates for money you weren't interested in making in the first place.

Leroi Moore, saxophone player for the Dave Matthews Band, died Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles from "sudden complications" from a June ATV accident, the band said in a posting on its website. He was 46.

Moore was a founding member of the band, which singer and guitarist Matthews formed in Charlottesville, Va., in 1991. In addition to his duties on saxophone -- he often played dreamy melodic lines, and his bright, upward arcing part unlocks the chorus on the early song "Dancing Nancies" -- Moore helped arrange some of Matthews' songs and was a stalwart presence on stage.

He missed this summer's tour, though, after breaking several ribs and puncturing a rib in a June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville. Moore had recent returned to Los Angeles to begin an "intensive physical rehabilitation program," the band said.

Dave Matthews Band is still scheduled to perform tonight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, according to tour dates on the group's website. Jeff Coffin of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones has stood in for Moore this summer.

The music staff at AOL Radio and AOL Music's "Spinner" has come up with a list of the 20 worst songs of all time. In the No. 1 spot: "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by the Baha Men.

Other tunes that made the list include "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes, "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" by Will Smith, "With Arms Wide Open" by Creed, "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion and, in the No. 2 spot, "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice.

It's true, all those songs are pretty annoying. But are they really the worst songs of all time? Maybe I've been softened up by all the Rick Springfield nuts, who are perfectly content with middle-of-the-road pop songs, but consider: Every one of the tunes on AOL's list made it into rotation on the radio. Some of them have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and were No. 1 hits.

Radio play, chart position and sales data aren't indications of quality. They just measure what people like, and there's definitely no accounting for taste. Still, it seems obvious that the worst songs of all time would be songs that nobody likes -- that's just not as fun to argue about

Amy Winehouse had the gig and lost it with her erratic behavior, so Jack White and Alicia Keys have stepped in to duet on the theme song for the next James Bond movie, Columbia Pictures announced Tuesday.

"Another Way to Die," slated to open the 22nd James Bond adventure, "Quantum of Solace," is the first Bond-theme duet. The movie is scheduled for release in November, and the soundtrack is due Oct. 28 on J Records.

White wrote and produced the song and also plays drums on the track. He and Keys join the illustrious ranks of previous Bond singers, including Shirley Bassey, Paul McCartney, U2, Madonna and Chris Cornell.

"Only By the Night," the fourth album from Kings of Leon, doesn't come out until Sept. 23, but the band is giving away the first song for free this week.

Although the give-away is billed as a joint venture with Spin.com, there's no need to even visit the magazine's website. Just click here, enter your e-mail address and in a few seconds, you'll have a link to download "Crawl."

It's a brawny tune, with crumbly, overdriven guitar, rumbling low end and huge, reverberating vocals from Caleb Followill. This bodes well for the follow-up to last year's excellent "Because of the Times."

Talk about bad timing: Just weeks after the band released a children's album, Barenaked Ladies singer Steven Page was arrested last Friday near Syracuse, N.Y., on a drug possession charge while visiting two women at their apartment, The Associated Press reports.

Police in Manlius, N.Y., said a patrol officer saw a car parked across the sidewalk nearby with the driver's side door open. The car was registered to the apartment Page was visiting, and when officers approached the apartment, police say they saw Page and one of the women at the kitchen table with a white capsule that later tested positive for cocaine. A search of the apartment also turned up marijuana, police said.

Page pleaded not guilty and the case was continued to Aug. 26.

Fans reacted with shock and disappointment on the message board on the band's website, while the band says in a statement that it's "business as usual" while Page awaits his day in court.

UPDATE (7/18/08): "Business as usual" was apparently an optimistic assessment -- the band today announced it was canceling its appearance at a Disney charity show.

"Members of the band completely support Steven Page but we don't want to put Disney in an awkward position before issues involving Steven's arrest are resolved," group manager Terry McBride said in a statement posted on the band's website.

Natalie Cole was diagnosed with Hepatitis C during a recent routine examination, the singer revealed this morning.

She was likely infected with the blood-borne virus as a result of her past drug use, according to a statement from her publicist. Cole underwent a successful course of treatment, her doctor said in the statement, though she also experienced side effects from the anti-viral medication, including fatigue, muscle aches and dehydration.

"Natalie has had a terrific response to her medication and is now virus negative," said Dr. Graham Woolf, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at U.C.L.A./Cedars Sinai Medical Center. "This gives her an increased chance of cure."

Cole is hardly the only musician to contract Hepatitis C. David Crosby, Phil Lesh, Kid Rock and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee are infected, and Texas roots-rocker Alejandro Escovedo nearly died in 2003 from complications from the virus.

The diagnosis for Cole is not expected to interfere with her forthcoming release, "Still Unforgettable," due Sept. 9 on Rhino.

Wow, that's a lot of money: The drum skin on the cover of the Beatles' 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has fetched $1.1 million at auction in London, Reuters reports.

That's even more than the sale price for handwritten lyrics to John Lennon's song "Give Peace a Chance," which went for $834,000 -- far more than the anticipated $500,000.

"I never in a million years thought it would make the estimate," Gail Renard, who sold the manuscript via Christie's, told Reuters. "I thought, 'Who would want to pay for that? There's a credit crunch.'"

Imogen Heap is still hard at work on her next album, but fans eager for a sneak peek can hear her new song, "Not Now But Soon," on the "Heroes Original Television Soundtrack." Or just wait until Tuesday, July 8, and buy it through iTunes as a single.

The former Frou Frou frontwoman was among the first artists to take advantage of MySpace, which benefited her 2005 album "Speak for Yourself." Now Heap is taking advantage of the latest must-have networking trend with a video blog on YouTube, available here.

With the July 8 release of "Modern Guilt" less than two weeks away, Beck is streaming two additional songs from the album at iLike and on his MySpace page.

New songs "Orphans" and "Gamma Ray" join "Chemtrails," which the singer had previously made available. There's also a dedicated website for the album, on which Beck will be posting clips of each song as the release date nears.

As the Verve prepares for the August 18 release of its first album in 11 years, the English band has already posted the first single, "Love is Noise," on its MySpace page.

Starting Monday, the band will give away a second song, "Mover," which will be available for one week as a free download from the Verve's official website.

"Love is Noise" picks up where the band left off with 1997's "Urban Hymns," with huge atmospheric guitars and Richard Ashcroft intoning lyrics in a voice edged with a hint of grit. It's a promising sign that the new album, "Forth," could be the most welcome comeback of 2008.

Bureaucrats aren't generally known for having much sense of humor, but State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey cracked wise about Boy George in a briefing yesterday. "Do you really want to hurt him?" Casey deadpanned after he was asked why the United States denied the English singer a visa earlier this week.

Casey nearly spit out a sip of water when a reporter asked, "What does the U.S. government have against Boy George?" The deputy spokesman said he couldn't discuss specifics, but noted that "there often are difficulties for individuals who either are currently subject to criminal charges or otherwise may have criminal records." (Watch the briefing here; the Boy George question comes about 3 minutes in.)

Boy George faces charges in Britain of falsely imprisoning a man in a case that is set for trial this fall. Without a visa to enter the U.S., the singer had to cancel his summer tour here, including a concert he planned to perform for New York sanitation workers. Boy George (born George O'Dowd) worked alongside them for five days in 2006 as part of court-ordered community service after he pleaded guilty to falsely reporting a break-in at his New York apartment.

In case honing your rock-star moves in the privacy of your own home via "Guitar Hero" or "Rock Band" wasn't enough of a time suck, now you can play "Guitar Hero" anywhere at all, on your cell phone.

"Guitar Hero III" comes in a mobile version, available through the V Cast service on Verizon Wireless phones. It was the cellphone provider's top selling mobile game during the first quarter of 2008, say Verizon and game developer Hands-On Mobile.